Calcutta, Sept. 7: A top CBI officer today said the agency was about to track down four of the 11 persons presumed dead in the alleged massacre in Midnapore’s Chhoto Angaria village in January 2001.

Five of those presumed dead are “moving” in and around the village, said CBI officers investigating the case.

M.L. Gupta, the superintendent of CBI’s special crime branch here, said five persons were killed in the incident and not 11. “We have already tracked down two men. The rest (four) will soon be traced,” said Gupta, who is in charge of the investigation.

The CBI officer, however, refused to say whether the agency had evidence to prove that five persons were killed in the alleged carnage. “Whatever we have to say, we will say in court,” said Gupta.

On the night of January 3, 2001, CPM cadre allegedly torched the house of Abdul Rehman Mondol alias Bakhtar at Chhoto Angaria, about 200 km from Calcutta.

The Trinamul Congress had alleged that 11 of its supporters were killed in the incident and the bodies were smuggled out of the area by the cadre.

Earlier, the CBI had tracked down Ishaque Mondol, one of the men Trinamul had claimed to be dead. A report from the special crime branch had said it had enough evidence to prove that another “victim”, Umed of Dangarpara, was also alive. The sleuths met Ishaque through a contact “at least eight times” in the past few months. There were allegations that the villagers were not cooperating with the CBI but Gupta refused to comment.